Daniel's TV Blog

I like TV and so should you

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Jericho

Episode 13 of Jericho airs tonight. Last week was the actual start of the 2nd half of the season. It was actually a prequel to the pilot where they flashbacked to the hours leading up to the bombs so there was no real continuation of the "real time" events that have occurred so far. Now the dramas escalates with the arrival of Emily's finance and Hawkins' girlfriend. Episode 1.12 was called "The Day Before" an obvious reference to the old 80's TV Movie "The Day After." I watched that recently on the Sci Fi Channel. It was awful but it scared me as a child. Jericho hasn't been a huge break-away success like Ugly Betty or Heroes, but I've been consistently entertained by it. Shows live or die by how interesting the characters are, and this town has a great variety of believable characters that are not too common on TV today and that's why I like it. The good mystery of who is behind the bombs isn't important as having good characters deal with the situation.

Cyrus and the Lamb

Veronica Mars has wrapped up the current batch of episodes with the solving of Dean Cyrus O'Dell's murder (spoiler below). The problem with a show whose main storylines revolve around solving murders is that after a while, there's a large body count. In recent weeks during the O'Dell investigation, Mrs. O'Dell, Sheriff Lamb, and Richard Greico were all killed. Concurrently in another storyline, the Hearst College Basketball coach was murdered too. In this mid-size California town that's three well known people among the dead this season. But that's the nature of television.

They laid the seeds of the O'Dell murder all season but it wasn't until last night when I figured it out, mostly by process of elimination. It couldn't be the obvious suspects so whose left, Tim the T.A. When the camera cut to him when Professor SexyHank (pictured) was arrested, I knew he was guilty. Then his line about how "everyone hated the Dean," sealed it for me. I loved the dramatic realization by Veronica in front of her entire criminology class. He was so busted. It's too bad SexyHank killed Mrs. O'Dell also. I want him back next season. Or anywhere near me.

The oddest thing about the show Veronica Mars is their infrequent use of title sequence stars. Usually when you are in the title sequence, you are in every episode. Mac has been totally under used this season. I can't remember the last time I Piz. Finally Parker is getting another storyline. Wallace was only useful when Veronica was investigating the coach's death. It just seems to be all about Veronica, Keith, and Logan.

VM now goes on break of new episodes for a couple months. It will finish it's third season in May with a new mystery in five episodes In the past two seasons they have always given us the satisfaction of closing the case by the end of the season and ended with a good but new cliffhanger. I hope they keep this tradition and close the next mystery before the end.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

LOST 3.09: Much Tattoo About Nothing

I've been sitting on this post since last Friday. I couldn't find a good photo to go with it. I finally went online and grabbed this one. Episode 9 was a total Jackisode. Nothing about the beach people. I'm not complaining, it was still a good episode. I love the Others. Now they are heading back to their neat little village. Kate and "James" are heading back to the beach. And Karl's heading to win back his girl. In the end I don't think they answered one question to my satisfaction, much less three as the promo stated.Here's what we learned.

The Chinese on Jack's tattoo translates "he walks amongst us, but he is not one of us".

Ethan was a surgeon.

The kids and flight attendant Cindy are alive and living amongst the others with a better life.

Ben might not walk again.

New Questions:

If Ethan was a doctor, how did he not manage to kill Charlie when he hung him from a tree?

What do Jack's other tattoos mean?

Why didn't Kate and Sawyer bring the outrigger back to camp? They could have at least used it for fishing.

What happened to Cindy and the kids?

What were the others there to watch?

Did they really leave Hydra island because Jack's friends know where it is?

How does the sheriff know that Jack is lying.

This week is episode 10. They aren't very far along consider Heroes just had episode 17 last night. We've got lots of meaty stories still to come this season. Also, this is my all time favorite blog post title. I'm so clever.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Heroes 1.16: Someone Flew and Someone Dew

Hmm, the latest promotional catch phase doesn't sound right in the past tense, or maybe it's just that English is weird. So going in to the episode we knew someone was going to die. I hate when I know this because I spend the entire episode waiting for it. Oh, Ando got shot, it's going to be him. Oh, Claire's mom collapsed, it's going to be her. Oh, HRG tazzered The Ninth Doctor, it's going to be him. Oh, Claire's confronting her father, it's going to be him. Oh, Peter is drunk with power and fighting with Isaac, it's going to be him (Isaac). Nope, it's the woman they were fighting over, Simone. She didn't have any powers anyway so she wasn't important. With Hiro sending Ando back to Japan, they got rid of both the non-Hero characters in one episode.

Next week we get to see the battle between Radioactive Ted and Claire. It's going to be cool. There's a bit of a spoiler in this week's TV Guide in the form of some behind the scenes photos. Avoid it if you can.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

The Amazing Race All-Star edition is finally here, with 11 teams from the most recent season all the way back to the first season. Here's who they got:

Kevin & Drew - The frat brothers from season one who were always bickering. The were last seen wandering India trying to remember where they dropped their bags on the race to the pit stop.

Joe & Bill - The first gay team from the first season. They were one of the few teams in the history of the show not to be at the finish line. Team Guido was the first villain team.

Oswald & Danny - Team Cha Cha Cha from season two never expect to finish so high (they finished fourth). They were the only team to buy a souvenir with there food money. While in Hong Kong they found such a unique fragrance they just had to have it. What homos.

John Vito & Jill - This was the 9-11 team. Jill's brother (who was also John Vito's best friend) died in the World Trade Center. The tragic events pushed them together but they have since broken up. I just love saying "John Vito".

Teri & Ian - Ian never let Teri do one road block which led to the new rule that the road blocks needed to be balanced. He is such a controlling jerk I hope they get eliminated first.

Charla & Mirna - AKA Mirna and Shirna. Charla is the little person who carried a rack of beef across the Argentine countryside. Mirna can speak like 1000 languages. They are a fun and feisty team.

Rob & Amber - They met on Survivor All Stars so it make sense to see them here. I can't stand them. They should be eliminated second.

Uchenna & Joyce - The only previous team to have won. When Joyce had to cut off all her hair for the Fast Forward, I cried. Not because it was sad but because she looked so beautiful. I wouldn't be opposed to see them win.

Eric & Danielle - The only team not to have been a team before. They competed against each other last spring. Eric was part of the frat boy team that lost to the hippies because they couldn't remember the flags of the countries they had visited. This caused my friend Lorna to give up on the show forever. She hated the hippies. I'm glad they didn't included the hippies since there are already enough villain teams.

David & Mary - Billed as "Coal Miner and Wife," they were the poor white trash working class team that America fell in love with. Rosie gave them a house on The View.Dustin & Kandice - Last seasons fierce and beautiful team of pageant queens came in fourth. They were also portrayed as villains.

It's going to be fun to see all the great team competing against each other. I can't wait to see who pulls out ahead and who falls behind. Click here to set your TiVo.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

LOST 3.08: Make Your Own Kind of Music

I read in the recent Entertainment Weekly article that the Desmond episode was going to employ a flashback technique they've never used before and will never use again. Last night's flashback was different from all other flashbacks in more than one way. Besides being one continuous sequence instead of scenes interwoven with current events, he was a "reliving" of events instead of just remembering them. I doubt they will have a reason to do either of these storytelling devices again.

We got to hear the great Mama Cass song again from Desmond's first appearance.

What we've learned:

Caleb from The O.C. is a huge dick. Although we sort of knew that from last season's finale

Desmond crossed paths with Charlie years ago.

Claire goes swimming every day

Charlie is going to die

And here are the new questions:

So what did happen to Desmond? Was it a vision by the island, some groundhog day experience, or a dream? How does that explain how he knows future events shortly before they happen?

Did Locke and Eko have similar experiences?

What happened to his clothes?

Where did the bottle of Whiskey come from? It wasn't Dharma Inititive.

What is Sawyer going to do when he discovers stuff missing from his stash?

Are we going to see the ring again? From what I read it takes over a thousand years for a water molecule to make a complete circle in the ocean current. So it would be a long time before the ring washed up on the shores of the island after being tossed in the Thames and flushed out to sea.

While the episode wasn't as excited as the past few, it was different and it was good. And it wasn't about Jack/Kate/Sawyer so that made it great. Next week the flight attendent returns after living with the others. Fun.

Best Week Ever 02-09-07

Self Absorbed Celebrities, the mildly interesting kind, had the best week ever. It's lame. I don't care about Ryan Reynolds and Alanis Morisette or the feud between Keith Urban the singer and the artist. But I guess that is the point. The best part was Frangela talking about Black History Month. I love them. Here's a clip from the episode which inlcudes that part.

Last week on 02-02-07, Daniel Radcliffe had the best week ever.

And two weeks ago, Old Ladies had the best week ever. The feud between Alexis Carington and Mrs. Garret was the best.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

She Was So Outrageous

Unless you've been living under a rock (and who does that?) you know that Anna Nichole Smith dies this week after colapsing at The Hard Rock Hotel/Casino in Florida. This lead me to ask, "there's a Hard Rock Casino in Florida?" Poor Anna recently lost her son to a drug overdose after the birth of her daughter. If you want to know more about Anna's life, tune in tonight at 8:00 on the Biography channel. They will be running her special. If you check the listings it will show "Judy Garland". She got pre-empted after Ms. Smith's untimely death. I was watching America's Castles on the BIO channel and they said tonight is Anna's show. Here is one of my favorite Anna clip:

Friday, February 09, 2007

The Sarah Silverman Program

Since I've been back from vacation, the one show I've been hearing the most about is the Sarah Silverman Program. I wasn't quite sure what it was. Was it a sitcom? Was it a skit comedy show? Was it a mock reality show? It turns out to be a sit-com. And it's funny. New episodes are on Thursday nights at 10:30. This episode was called "Humanitarian of te Year" which involved a homeless man who ended up on the street becuase his mom was the queefing lunch lady and this made him unstable. They also make gay-bashing funny. Although it could be gay-on-gay violence, it's hard to tell. Irregardless, TiVo the repeat over the weekend and let me know what you think.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

LOST 3.07: We're not quite in Portland

LOST is back, finally. I was unsatisfied with the six episodes they gave us in the fall. It should have been at least eight (or 1/3 of the season). Six was not enough to keep my excitement through the winter break. Plus it was all the Jack-Kate-Sawyer show. At least most of that is over after last night's episode. Kate and Sawyer have escaped the tiny island with Karl and will soon be back at the North Shore camp. Last night gave us the very satisfying tale of how Juliet came to be on the island. This was also the first flashback of an "other". Usually I want less flashback but last night I wanted more, more, more! Hopefully in the future we will see her arrival on the island and some of her history with Ben.

Here's what we leaned:

Juliet was recruited to the island because of her fertility research.

Karl was undergoing some Clockwork Orange experiments.

Everyone thinks Alex is Ben's daughter.

Jack is still a dick.

Here are the new questions:

Did the Dharma people kill Juliet's ex-husband or was that a coincidence?

What happened to her sister? Why was she sick?

Who is the 26-year-old with the 70-year-old vajayjay? Is she on the island?

New Mac Ad

Monday, February 05, 2007

Super Bowl Commercials

I missed the Super Bowl yesterday. I was mid-flight between Florida and Seattle. Luckily YouTube has an entire page with all the super bowl commercials. And you can vote on which one is your favorite. This one is my favorite:

Sulu Joins Heroes

It's not often I'm stunned when a guest star joins the cast of a show. I read TV Guide and Entertainment weekly and they usually annouce the news far in advance. Plus networks usually promote the guest star to get new viewers. But I was stunned, STUNNED, when Hiro's father showed up last week as the big boss behind the van guys and it was Sulu! Aparently this was reported in the November issue of the Advocate, but somehow I missed this news, probably since I don't read the Advocate anymore. Is Sulu somehow connected with Linderman?

Last week was a big parent episode in other ways too. Claire found her fire-starting mother and it's Nip/Tuck's Gina, the crazy poz sex addict. I love her. Also Officer Matt found out he is going to be a daddy. His storyline has become tiresome.

In addition to Sulu and Gina, they added the Ninth Doctor as the invisible man. How many characters are they going to add this season?

About Me

I love TV. Movies are great but there's so much more story and character development that can be accomplished in episodic television. Since I started unwittingly studying television over 25 years ago I've noticed many patterns and advancements. I will share my views, opinions, and TV news several times a week. Please leave your own comments.